North Korea

[Anonymous]

Apparently North Korea has been jamming airline frequencies recently for South Korean airliners flying in and out of South Korea's major airports. Fortunately, airplanes have other backup systems that allow them to safely navigate from one place to the next. It seems North Korea wants to try to make life miserable for its neighbors because misery loves company. North Korea's economy is still nearly non-existent and it's recent nuclear missile test was not quite a success. So North Korea has openly threatened to transform South Korea "to ashes in three or four minutes" by "unprecedented peculiar means and methods." With a government like this, it's no wonder that so many North Koreans are heading for the border.

[Anonymous]

This is another good book, not as much about North Korea, as it is about a young American's efforts to get people out of North Korea. Mike Kim is a young Korean American who spent several years on the border between China and North Korea. He told the Chinese authorities that he was there to train in martial arts, but his true purpose was to help people escape out of North Korea.

The biggest challenge today facing North Koreans trying to escape, is that once they are in China, they are not yet home free. If discovered by the Chinese authorities, they get shipped back to North Korea, where they face months or even years in prison for trying to escape. The main reason for this is that China is weary of too many people crossing it's border, and thus destabilizing North Korea. China likes the buffer North Korea creates between China and South Korea.

Kim helps connect North Korean refuges with Chinese people who help them travel to South Korea. Some of the people he helps, even make there way to Thailand, through what has become a modern day underground railroad system.

The book is a good read for those who are interested in learning more about how people get out of North Korea. Kim currently works as head of his non-profit organization, Crossing Borders, which assists people trying to leave North Korea. His book has been optioned into a movie being developed through the William Morris Agency.

[Anonymous]

I vaguely remembered hearing about the smuggling of cell phones between South and North Korea. I investigated and during the transition from Kim Jung Il and his son Kim Jung Un there was a complete ban on cell phones in North Korea. If caught with a cell phone citizens could be tried and treated as a "war criminal". Similar to the Chinese government that is afraid of "Arab Spring" uprisings, the North Korean government will go to extreme lengths to censor information. The article also addressed the issue of escape to China and South Korea. A famine relief group is providing a small food relief effort to North Koreans, but won't support a large relief effort until North Korea abandons its nuclear program.

[Anonymous]

North Korea is a strange place.

See the link below for more propaganda released just before Kim Jong II died.
http://www.businessinsider.com/kim-jong-il-kim-jong-un-north-korea-propoganda-2011-12

[Anonymous]

North Korea seems to be showing off their powers again: http://www.npr.org/2012/06/12/154774626/hijacking-reveals-strains-in-china-north-korea-ties
It seems like China is none to worried about this latest incident, and it seems to line up with North Korea's latest series of "See! you should pay attention to our new awesome leader" events.

[Anonymous]

The article from BBC sheds light on the height differences between North and South Koreans due to periods of malnutrition and famine in South Korea. What I felt was particularly interesting and worth following was that in 1994 during a period of governmental transition from Kim Il Sung to Kim Jung Ill nearly 1- 1.5 million people died as a result of famine. As North Korea is now transitioning from Kim Jung Il to Kim Jung Un it would be interesting to follow and see the long terms effects on the production of food and famine. Will a transition of dictators in North Korea always lead to famine? With lack of access to industrialized agriculture methods and a population that is malnourished, it makes it difficult to increase productivity. I shared this article with my students as an opening activity while they were learning about the Korean War. It helped make the effects of Communism more real and related to the students.

[Anonymous]

Many people around the world want to know what is hiding behind the information blockades surrounding NK's border. The question, "What really goes on in NK?" mught have a very big answer soon to be discovered.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=154982257

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

Nothing to Envy is an incredible book by the LA Times Beijing bureau chief Barbara Demick. This book chronicles the lives of several North Koreans, as they struggle to survive the famine of the mid 90's (a famine which claimed the lives of millions of North Koreans). Many of them end up sneaking across the border into China, and then later make their way to South Korea.

North Korea, because it is so mountainous and cold, lacks adequate farm land to feed its population. This was not a problem during the Cold War, because the Soviets helped make up for food shortages. That all ended after the Cold War was over. The timing couldn't have been worse. In the subsequent years North Korea endured a severe famine, and, because of it's closed-door foreign policy, received very little assistance from the outside world.

The perversion lies in the fact that the government, instead of getting help, continued to stay isolated, and continued to try to brainwash its people into thinking that everything was fine. This book is the story of North Korean patriots who, through the course of the famine, become totally disillusioned by how backward their country is. Through guts and bravery, they journey to the northern border, cross into China, and ultimately find refuge in South Korea.

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